Feminism is Cheap News
I watched my first episode of Charlie Brookers’ Newswipe yesterday so I’ll apologise in advance for this rant but I’m very angry.
There’s been a rash of news articles and radio programmes about the current state of feminism in the last week or so and it’s beginning to get on my tits. Probably the influence of International Women’s Day I guess.
Last week there was the Radio Times feature ‘How Dirty Socks Kill Feminism’ about how women do most of the housework even though they are at least equal breadwinners with men. Good point. Unfortunately the article trotted out the same old cheese about how ‘women’s work’ somehow wasn’t worth the same as ‘work’ work.
My fabulous (and very dishy) husband does almost all the housework otherwise I couldn’t survive in my job. You see, its not ‘women’s’ work its just bloody work. OK?
Now today my attention has been drawn to this Times online article:
Why Women are Such Bad Networkers
Well if that article wasn’t designed to raise the hackles then I’m a monkey’s aunt. But the problem with the article isn’t the inflammatory title, it was the rubbish written beneath it.
Here are just some of the useless and unsubstantiated statements in it.
- Women don’t like being in social situations (no point in commenting on that right?)
- Women ‘are not natural networkers’ (no reason given)
- There is no national framework for women’s networks – is there one for men’s networks?
- Women don’t schmooze – the author hasn’t seen pretty 5th year architecture students crying in a crit (and then getting a first) obviously
- Women tend to lack ‘Social Capital’ – purlease!
- Women don’t think networking is important – I do
- Women think networking is manipulative – obviously doesn’t understand the essence of networking
- Women keep quiet about their success – Ida? Can you hear this? I think I’m going to have a strokeÖ
- A series of successful women networkers are interviewed. I guess they are the exception that proves the rule?
Not that the article doesn’t make some good points. Yes there are very few women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies. The author also pointed out the study she referenced blamed a range of factors for this (but then it also blamed the ‘fact’ that women aren’t good at networking so maybe we should just find a new study).
So here is my opinion.
Networking is a skill. Its not necessarily something that everyone should enjoy. It’s not the province of men more than women. Lets learn to do it better and stop writing lazy, badly researched, provocative, factually inaccurate pap. Thank you.
12 Responses to Feminism is Cheap News
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Great post Su, the original Times article was written by a woman who has done more than the average amount of networking – how else does a journalist make contacts?
Great post Su, the original Times article was written by a woman who has done more than the average amount of networking – how else does a journalist make contacts?
Well argued, Su! Of course, provocative sells papers, gets people talking, gets bloggers linking…no excuse, obviously, but I suspect that’s got a lot to do with why we see so much of this type of article.
Well argued, Su! Of course, provocative sells papers, gets people talking, gets bloggers linking…no excuse, obviously, but I suspect that’s got a lot to do with why we see so much of this type of article.
Good points – there are several examples of successful women networkers in the article – thereby disproving the argument of the article!
It will be interesting what effect the “social” media will have on print journalism. One argument to pay for professional journalism is that they offer something that mere bloggers cannot – authority and credibility. whether I agree with that or not, I hope they push for those qualities more rather than resorting to provocative articles like that one.
Twitter: Subutcher
Hi Su
Couldn’t get the links to the first two properly but your third reference kind of (to me, anyway) goes back to why we bother to read daily ‘news’ papers in the 21st century…
And is just one more indication of how The Times has gone down the tube since its Murdoch ownership
.
From what I took from its ‘article’ I’m thinking
“Does hiding behind pot plants instead of networking to share achievements scupper female board room promotions?”
would have been more representative of its contents – and falls within the ‘acceptable’ 17-word heading
– and I had a bit of fun with it…
There’s another thing here:
I know some absolutely brilliant, ace female ‘networkers’ who’ve never been to a ‘networking’ event as it’s described in common parlance in their lives. For them there has to be a common purpose in the first place – the entertainment industry, market research, or whatever to justify their attendance and networking activity.
Twitter: Linda_Mattacks
And so many networking events are timed at 8am, when most of us women are busy organising their household ready for the school run.
Oh absolutely!
Good points – there are several examples of successful women networkers in the article – thereby disproving the argument of the article!
It will be interesting what effect the “social” media will have on print journalism. One argument to pay for professional journalism is that they offer something that mere bloggers cannot – authority and credibility. whether I agree with that or not, I hope they push for those qualities more rather than resorting to provocative articles like that one.
Twitter: Subutcher
Hi Su
Couldn’t get the links to the first two properly but your third reference kind of (to me, anyway) goes back to why we bother to read daily ‘news’ papers in the 21st century…
And is just one more indication of how The Times has gone down the tube since its Murdoch ownership
.
From what I took from its ‘article’ I’m thinking
“Does hiding behind pot plants instead of networking to share achievements scupper female board room promotions?”
would have been more representative of its contents – and falls within the ‘acceptable’ 17-word heading
– and I had a bit of fun with it…
There’s another thing here:
I know some absolutely brilliant, ace female ‘networkers’ who’ve never been to a ‘networking’ event as it’s described in common parlance in their lives. For them there has to be a common purpose in the first place – the entertainment industry, market research, or whatever to justify their attendance and networking activity.
Twitter: Linda_Mattacks
And so many networking events are timed at 8am, when most of us women are busy organising their household ready for the school run.
Oh absolutely!